The first deadline for proposals for the Gemini
telescopes is likely to be 31 March 2000
(see article elsewhere in this Newsletter). It is
therefore appropriate to announce now that we plan
to implement the same policies for allocation of
time on these telescopes as are used for allocating
time on Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo telescopes. Specifically, you will be able to use the
same observing forms and procedures with which you are already familiar, and the TACs will operate
in exactly the same manner. If current experience
at CTIO and KPNO is a guide, we can expect that 80-90 percent of the US share of the
observing time on the Gemini telescopes will go to astronomers outside NOAO.

NOAO is responsible for providing support to the US users of the Gemini telescopes, except
when the observers are actually at the observatories
in Hawaii or Chile. NOAO staff will be the first point of contact for questions about
planning observing programs at Gemini, optimizing observing strategies, and reducing data --- just
as they now are for CTIO and KPNO telescopes. Therefore, NOAO staff will have to become knowledgeable about the Gemini instruments
and their quirks and capabilities.

The best way for the staff to acquire the
necessary depth of knowledge is to use the telescopes
and instruments themselves. Recognizing this requirement, the AURA Board has established
a set of policies relating to the allocation of
observing time by NOAO. These policies
state that the allocation of time is the responsibility
of the Observatory Director, that the same
procedure will be used to evaluate proposals from
both NOAO staff and from the community, and that the Director may assign at his/her ``discretion
up to 25 percent of the time during which the telescopes are scheduled for observations
for science, science verification tests of new instrumentation, for calibrating or testing
the performance of old instrumentation, or for telescope maintenance. At least 60 percent
of scheduled observing time shall be assigned to scientists who are not on the staff of NOAO.''

In practice, I have never used the full allocation
of discretionary time on the CTIO and KPNO telescopes. When I came to KPNO, I
discovered that historically about 10 percent of the
available time was used for commissioning new instruments, installing and testing upgrades to
the telescopes, etc. Demand for engineering time continues at about this level, and I have
scheduled it as part of the discretionary allotment. I have
also used up to 10 percent of the total available
time for discretionary allocations of nights for
scientific observations. This science time has been
allocated only to proposals that have been reviewed
and evaluated by the TAC and has been used to:

Ensure that NOAO scientific staff who
must support a facility get observing time for
their own science. This guarantees staff
competence with, and knowledge of, the equipment.
I have also used discretionary time to make sure that post-docs can conduct
viable research programs.

Provide guaranteed time for external
scientists or groups who have made a significant resource contribution to NOAO, such
as providing an instrument at a reduced cost.

Compensate for obvious biases or inadequacies of the Time
Allocation Committee, in cases where the TAC chair
and Director believe that a good proposal was treated unfairly.

With the advent of the Gemini telescopes, some modification of the implementation of this
policy is needed. While NOAO will not require any engineering time from the US allocation
of Gemini observing time, the other three factors listed above are relevant. There will be
NOAO (and perhaps external) scientists who are responsible for supporting US astronomers
in writing observing proposals, planning observing runs using the Gemini software,
and understanding and reducing data; these supporting scientists will need to have
an opportunity to use the Gemini instruments. NOAO (with the permission of AURA, the
NSF, and the Gemini Board) has offered
``guaranteed time'' to US instrument builders who can
provide some funding for US-built instruments.
And, occasionally, it will be important to accept
proposals that did not make the cut
recommended by the TAC.

The need to support these efforts with Gemini observing time has been discussed and endorsed
by the US Gemini Science Advisory Committee, the NOAO Users' Committee, and the
AURA Observatories Council, although a specific implementation plan had not been developed when these committees met.

What should the implementation plan be? At any given time, there might be one instrument
team collecting guaranteed time on each telescope:
a maximum of 5-6 nights per year per telescope might be allocated to the team. There might be
an additional 5-7 nights per year per telescope
for which discretionary allocation for support of science observations is desirable. This totals
10-13 nights, or up to about 10% of the annual US allotment on each telescope. I have indicated to
the AURA Board that I would like to limit discretionary time on the Gemini telescopes
(and on the independent telescopes to which NOAO provides access) to 10 percent. In all cases, I
will continue my current practice of awarding discretionary time only to proposals, whether
from staff or visitors, that have been evaluated by
the TAC.

If you have any comments on this proposal,
please feel free to send them to me
(swolff@noao.edu) and I will forward them (unedited!) to the
AURA Observatories Council and the AURA President.